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It's so sad to see the Stargate fandom kind of waning. SG-1 and Atlantis have both been canceled, and there hasn't been a lot of enthusiasm for Universe that I've seen so far (when we were asked twice from the stage yesterday if we were looking forward to Universe, there was only a tiny pocket of tepid applause in response). The attendance at this con isn't even close to matching the attendance at Creation's Supernatural cons, where even the one day general admission tickets sell out. For this con, even the autograph and photo op tickets didn't sell out for any of the guests.
The merchandise for sale was the usual Creation licensed stuff, although Big Finish had a table this year. They do a lot of Doctor Who and Stargate audio dramas, but they only brought the Stargate CDs with them. I was so disappointed because they also do Sapphire & Steel audio dramas and I was hoping to snag one without having to pay overseas shipping.
There were a lot of official publicity shots of Joe Flanigan for sale since he'll be signing autographs tomorrow. I never really noticed until I saw so many of them all in one place, but Joe tends to have a vaguely pained expression on his face in all the publicity photos, like there's a million places he'd rather be than posing for pictures that day.
And since I've been to so many cons that I can no longer attend one without running into someone I know, I bumped into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asyouleft in the main ballroom.
The first guest speaker for the day was Gary Jones. He's a natural raconteur, which is good because when you're best known for playing "Chevron Guy," there's not much of a well for fans to plumb for questions (although a quick peek at IMDb shows he's been in a lot more things than I thought). In fact, he wound up taking only 3 questions the whole hour because each answer turned into a 20 minute stand-up routine.
He told a lot of stories about being pulled aside for special attention by Homeland Security every time he came to the States because he didn't have a middle name and his name is so common that there's another Gary Jones out there somewhere who's a real criminal on Homeland Security's stop list. His wife finally decided that he needed a middle name to put a stop to this nonsense, so he applied to have his name legally changed to add the middle name 'Paul.' When he got his official documents back, his name was officially recorded as Gary Paul Von Jones. It turned out his wife thought 'Paul' wasn't cool enough, so she sneaked a 'Von' in there when she mailed the documents. He even dragged a fan out of the audience to read his drivers license out loud to prove it.
He also told a story about filming a scene that he was only in the background of, so he was reading while rehearsals went on around him. Then after what he thought was another rehearsal, he heard "Cut! Moving on!" and the crew started moving equipment out of the room. The scene made it on the air with him reading Vanity Fair in the shot the whole time.
His latest projects include appearing in Stargate Universe and writing a book called Not Savvy to the Process.
The second speaker of the day was Connor Trinneer. In a 'when fandoms collide' moment, he started out by saying that he was good friends with Misha Collins (Castiel on Supernatural) and wanted Misha to get him on the show so he could be a guest at every one of Creation's cons (he already appears for Stargate Atlantis and Enterprise).
He was having a heck of a time remembering details of shows and episodes he'd done and kept having to fact-check with the audience.
He's very much a straight-shooter and occasionally had to struggle for a good answer to a question. He doesn't want to offend anyone by saying he doesn't like something, but he doesn't like to lie and say he liked things that he really didn't either.
I always like when actors tell 'ways things can go horribly wrong while live on stage' stories. Connor's involved his first paying job as an actor, which was in a stage performance of The Tempest. He had a very small part, so he didn't have his own body mic and would have to speak into someone else's. The rest of the cast delighted in turning away from him or walking to other parts of the stage, basically playing Keep Away with their mics.
He said he was the producers' first choice to play Will on Will & Grace, but the network vetoed him because they didn't think he was ready to lead a show.
He joked about how awful Syfy's original movies are and said it took him three tries to get through his own movie, Star Runners.
His latest projects include narrating audiobooks (which he says are a labor of love because the pay is awful and the voice actors don't get residuals) and appearing in the next episode of The Closer. He says it's a really small part, so don't get up for snacks or anything.
I ended the day by managing to lose my coat. If anyone finds a black field jacket with silver zippers and a snap-on hood, please turn it in to the lost & found.
There won't be a Day 2 report because I'm not at the con today, but I will be there tomorrow and taking plenty of notes.
The merchandise for sale was the usual Creation licensed stuff, although Big Finish had a table this year. They do a lot of Doctor Who and Stargate audio dramas, but they only brought the Stargate CDs with them. I was so disappointed because they also do Sapphire & Steel audio dramas and I was hoping to snag one without having to pay overseas shipping.
There were a lot of official publicity shots of Joe Flanigan for sale since he'll be signing autographs tomorrow. I never really noticed until I saw so many of them all in one place, but Joe tends to have a vaguely pained expression on his face in all the publicity photos, like there's a million places he'd rather be than posing for pictures that day.
And since I've been to so many cons that I can no longer attend one without running into someone I know, I bumped into
asyouleft in the main ballroom.The first guest speaker for the day was Gary Jones. He's a natural raconteur, which is good because when you're best known for playing "Chevron Guy," there's not much of a well for fans to plumb for questions (although a quick peek at IMDb shows he's been in a lot more things than I thought). In fact, he wound up taking only 3 questions the whole hour because each answer turned into a 20 minute stand-up routine.
He told a lot of stories about being pulled aside for special attention by Homeland Security every time he came to the States because he didn't have a middle name and his name is so common that there's another Gary Jones out there somewhere who's a real criminal on Homeland Security's stop list. His wife finally decided that he needed a middle name to put a stop to this nonsense, so he applied to have his name legally changed to add the middle name 'Paul.' When he got his official documents back, his name was officially recorded as Gary Paul Von Jones. It turned out his wife thought 'Paul' wasn't cool enough, so she sneaked a 'Von' in there when she mailed the documents. He even dragged a fan out of the audience to read his drivers license out loud to prove it.
He also told a story about filming a scene that he was only in the background of, so he was reading while rehearsals went on around him. Then after what he thought was another rehearsal, he heard "Cut! Moving on!" and the crew started moving equipment out of the room. The scene made it on the air with him reading Vanity Fair in the shot the whole time.
His latest projects include appearing in Stargate Universe and writing a book called Not Savvy to the Process.
The second speaker of the day was Connor Trinneer. In a 'when fandoms collide' moment, he started out by saying that he was good friends with Misha Collins (Castiel on Supernatural) and wanted Misha to get him on the show so he could be a guest at every one of Creation's cons (he already appears for Stargate Atlantis and Enterprise).
He was having a heck of a time remembering details of shows and episodes he'd done and kept having to fact-check with the audience.
He's very much a straight-shooter and occasionally had to struggle for a good answer to a question. He doesn't want to offend anyone by saying he doesn't like something, but he doesn't like to lie and say he liked things that he really didn't either.
I always like when actors tell 'ways things can go horribly wrong while live on stage' stories. Connor's involved his first paying job as an actor, which was in a stage performance of The Tempest. He had a very small part, so he didn't have his own body mic and would have to speak into someone else's. The rest of the cast delighted in turning away from him or walking to other parts of the stage, basically playing Keep Away with their mics.
He said he was the producers' first choice to play Will on Will & Grace, but the network vetoed him because they didn't think he was ready to lead a show.
He joked about how awful Syfy's original movies are and said it took him three tries to get through his own movie, Star Runners.
His latest projects include narrating audiobooks (which he says are a labor of love because the pay is awful and the voice actors don't get residuals) and appearing in the next episode of The Closer. He says it's a really small part, so don't get up for snacks or anything.
I ended the day by managing to lose my coat. If anyone finds a black field jacket with silver zippers and a snap-on hood, please turn it in to the lost & found.
There won't be a Day 2 report because I'm not at the con today, but I will be there tomorrow and taking plenty of notes.
